Loop Mass 2: Advanced Plants

Basic Info

The Austin Museum of Digital Art and Captive are proud to present LOOP MASS 2: ADVANCED PLANTS. This event will feature large-scale digital installation pieces from a range of local and national artists. Their work will explore humanity’s failed role in the stewardship of the planet, and consider whether another life form might provide a more enlightened approach. Each piece will be installed among the contemporary vegetation at the Center For Maximum Potential Building Systems, Austin’s pioneers in sustainable architecture and building.

Curatorial Statement

Welcome to the world of Advanced Plants, an outdoor museum of futuristic vegetation. This multitudinous collaboration incorporates works from all over the country, using a wide variety of media, conjures the planet’s verdurous future and offers a glimpse of the dazzling new diversity to come. The ‘Curator’ will guide and contextualize the exhibit, taking you on a tour of 14 significant specimens, each exemplifying noteworthy evolutionary benchmarks of the post-human era. You will learn of humanity’s reckoning with the dreaded singularity, our role in the widespread environmental devastation of the planet, the gradual diminishment of our species, the plant kingdom’s sensible appropriation of our technology, and the subsequent restoration of Earth to its prehistoric harmony.

ADVANCED PLANTS will consist of temporary installations at the Center For Maximum Potential Building Systems, the headquarters of Austin’s own pioneers in sustainable architecture and building. Teams of artists will produce stand-alone pieces, which will be installed amongst contemporary vegetation on CMPBS’s sprawling property. An actress playing a plant/human hybrid ‘Curator’ will act as museum docent, leading guided tours through the exhibit with narration based on the beliefs of the new regime, and the ego-less plant society.

Supporters

About AMODA

The Austin Museum of Digital Art (AMODA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to engage the public and artists in the creation, understanding, and appreciation of digital art. The show was created by Stephen Fishman (AMODA’s artistic director), along with Ryan Padgett and Zac Traeger. More info →

Stephen Fishman, AMODA

Stephen Hal Fishman is an Austin-based video artist, designer and performer creating experimental animated films, music videos, print media, interactive installations and live visual accompaniment for music and dance. His work focuses on the intersection of art and technology. It is a synthesis of humor, cultural subversion, and fantasy. His short animated films and music videos have been shown in festivals all over the U.S. and Europe. His interactive pieces have been shown at the New Media Art and Sound Summit, Fusebox Festival, Art of the Brew and the Museum of Human Achievement in Austin. In 2016, he was a resident at UT Dallas’s Central Trak gallery. He held the Co-Lab Projects online Bit Residency in 2017, and is currently a Moha4 online resident for the Museum of Human Achievement. He has performed with Total Unicorn in SXSW’s music festivals from 2012 to 2017, the CIMM festival in Chicago in 2016, the CODAME festival in San Francisco in 2015, and the Austin’s Outsider Festival in 2016 and 2017. Since 2008, Stephen has helped to program and direct the Austin Museum of Digital Art, a nomadic non-profit digital arts organization.

Ryan Padgett, Captive Studio

Ryan Padgett is a motion designer and audiovisualist based in Austin, TX. Born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, his studies took him to Chicago to complete his BFA in Visual Effects and Motion Graphics from the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago in 2011. By day he is the owner and operator of the experiential design studio Captive. He is also the founding member of the Austin Motion Artists Group, a meetup for Austin creatives and motion graphics artists that has been meeting monthly since 2012. By night you can find him exploring audiovisual and experiential design including live concert visuals, projection mapping and interactive installations. Currently, he is the visual curator of the Exploded Drawing series held at the Austin School of Film.

Zac Traeger, Museum of Human Achievement

Zac Traeger is a composer, creator and curator living in Austin, TX. His focus currently lies in the use and respect of artificial intelligence as a creative voice, director of circumstance and independent means of creation. He is known for his work with The Museum of Human Achievement, the experimental synth band Zorch, and his musical scores for various Scott Gelber short films and promotional pieces for Adult Swim Network.